There\u2019s an album sitting on my desk right now called Altered Sweet: A Tribute To Matthew Sweet.<\/i> I haven\u2019t listened to it yet, but my gut tells me somewhere along the way I\u2019m going to hear something on it that reminds me of Mason Summit\u2019s new album Summer Cold<\/i>, i.e. loose-limbed, playful, heart-on-my-sleeve DIY indie-rock-with-Beatles-influences-and-a-dash-of-alt-country in the Matthew Sweet \/ Ben Kweller \/ Wilco mold.<\/p>\n
The elements that Summit, Sweet and Kweller share is the juxtaposition of happy and sad extremes, coupled with the sheer exuberance they bring to the act of music-making. Even when penning the mope-iest of tunes, Summit makes his enthusiasm apparent time and time again with an artful turn of phrase or clever musical choice.<\/p>\n
Summer Cold<\/i> kicks off with a bounding rocker about being a sucker: \u201cIt\u2019s so obvious now \/ It pains me to admit \/ That I almost fell for it.\u201d He runs through several entertaining examples of his own gullibility, until at the bridge \u201cI grew up \/ I got wise \/ I opened my eyes.\u201d \u201cTake What I Can Get\u201d takes a similarly subversive and snarky approach to a one-sided relationship (\u201cI expect nothing from you \/ And you haven\u2019t failed me yet \/ I\u2019ll take what I can get\u2026\u201d) before chronicling the inevitable break-up in the dirge-like \u201cVoodoo Doll.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t want to get better \/ I think I\u2019ll spend forever in this broken-hearted hell,\u201d he sings to melancholy strummed acoustic chords. Sadness distills into purer form\u2014bitterness\u2014on the subsequent \u201cLike Hell.\u2019 \u201cI miss you like hell \/ I hope I never see you again\u201d goes the sleepy-eyed chorus, as Summit casually sums up the contradictions of a broken heart.<\/p>\n
The broad midsection of Summer Cold<\/i> has a distinct bedroom-album feel, mostly acoustic guitar and voice with little keyboard accents. Notable moments include the sunny-yet-melancholy vibe of \u201cCatch & Release\u201d (\u201cI guess I should have learned by now to tell a lure from love,\u201d says the fish); the anxious \u201cBiting My Nails,\u201d whose simple voice-and-guitar arrangement Summit invests with real tension; and the woozy, lounge-y instrumental interlude \u201cCasu Marzu.\u201d <\/p>\n
The final quarter finds Summit leaving the bedroom for two more tracks that, like the opener, feature a full rhythm section. The title track\u2014a lyrically slight tune about an inconsiderate friend sharing a summer cold around\u2014sticks with acoustic guitar but offers a little more dimension with live bass and drums and what sounds like Mellotron filling out the arrangement. Subsequent solo number \u201cOne More Thing\u201d is one of the finer moments here, a dreamy number featuring a philosophical bent to the lyrics and arcing electric guitar notes decorating an otherwise slumbering arrangement. Closer \u201cStick It Out\u201d dials the backbeat up to \u201cenergetic power-pop\u201d once again for a tune celebrating perseverance, adding hooky lead guitar and an especially cheeky synth tone that feels like it\u2019s mocking\/subverting the rest of the song even as it\u2019s adding dimension and texture.<\/p>\n
As an album, Summer Cold<\/i> feels like a captured moment in time, a mostly insular album that nonetheless feels more low-key and casual than fussed-over. It occupies a specific mood and moment\u2014the bruised, passive-aggressive aftermath of a bad break-up feels about right\u2014with Summit inviting you in to help him sift through the wreckage. There\u2019s a lot to enjoy in his often beguilingly unpretentious presentation of these tunes and it will be interesting to see what direction Mason Summit\u2019s considerable talent might take him next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":33413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[9946],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-45229","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mason-summit","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45229"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45229"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}